- We first went to Spring Grove Cemetery and Arboretum in Cincinnati. The cemetery, dating back to 1844, was started by a group of people who were inspired by rural cemeteries outside of Paris, France and Boston, Massachusetts. The group hired Adolph Strauch, a renowned landscape architect of the day, to design the 400 acre cemetery. There are some beautiful Gothic style chapels, ponds, and exotic trees on the grounds of the cemetery. The list of people buried in the cemetery reads like a who's who of Cincinnati. Names like Proctor, Gamble, Taft, and Kroger are engraved into some huge amazing tombstones. There are heads of industry, church leaders, Supreme Court Justices, abolitionists, Civil War generals, politicians, and sports figures all buried in this amazing cemetery. It was a beautiful sight to see. Spring Grove Cemetery and Arboretum has been listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places and designated as a U.S. National Historic Landmark District.
- After the cemetery, we headed over to the Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal. The building was originally built as a passenger train station. The building is designed in the Art Deco style and was built in 1933. The rotunda of the building features the largest semi-dome in the western hemisphere measuring 180 feet wide and 106 feet high. The rotunda is decorated with huge mosaics depicting local industry. The building is on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places and has been designated as a U.S. National Historic Landmark. While you can still catch the Amtrak train there, most of the building has been repurposed and houses the Cincinnati History Museum, the Museum of Natural History and Science, an Omnimax Theater, the Cincinnati Historical Society Library, Duke Energy Children's Museum, and the Cincinnati Railroad Club. I also discovered through a little research on Wikipedia that the design of the building inspired the look of the Hall of Justice, the iconic headquarters on the animated series of the 1970s and 1980s, the Superfriends.
- We then drove to the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood in Cincinnati. Over-the-Rhine is the largest, most intact urban historic district in the United States. It is on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places and designated as a U.S. Historic District. It contains the largest collection of Italianate architecture in the United States is an example of an intact 19th century urban neighborhood. The neighborhood was built in the 19th century during a period of extensive German immigration to the Cincinnati area. There is a huge resurgence of development in the area. Many housing developers are coming into the neighborhood and turning many of the old buildings into upscale lofts.
- The reason we went to Over-the-Rhine was to go to Findlay Market in Cincinnati. Findlay Market is the oldest continuously operated public market in the state of Ohio. The Market is also on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. It was started in 1852 and built with newest iron framework technology of the day. Findlay Market is open Wednesday through Sunday but the big day for the Market is Saturday when area farmers set up booths to sell their produce. It was a really neat thing to see. I don't know that I have ever been any place quite like it before.
- After the Findlay Market, we headed for lunch at Newport on the Levee which is an urban mall just across the Ohio River from Cincinnati in Newport, Kentucky. We had lunch at Claddah Irish Pub which has become one of my new favorite restaurants in the area. We also checked out an art gallery and a bookstore after lunch.
Thanks for being a part of my journey!
No comments:
Post a Comment